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Hemodialysis is a treatment to filter wastes and water from your blood, as your kidneys did when they were healthy

Hemodialysis helps control blood pressure and balance important minerals, such as potassium, sodium, and calcium in your blood

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Preparation for hemodialysis starts several weeks to months before the first procedure. To allow for easy access to the bloodstream, a surgeon will create a vascular access. The vascular access can be obtained three different ways:

Arteriovenous (AV) fistula

AV graft

Central venous catheter

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During hemodialysis, your blood goes through a filter, called a dialyzer, outside your body. A dialyzer is often sometimes called an "artificial kidney."

The dialysis machine pumps blood through the filter and returns the blood to your body. During the process, the dialysis machine checks your blood pressure and controls how quickly

blood flows through the filter

fluid is removed from your body

You can expect after the procedure or during the procedure to have:

better quality of life

increased well-being

reduced symptoms and less cramping, headaches and shortness of breath

improved appetite, sleeping patterns, energy level and ability to concentrate

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Home hemodialysis allows you to have longer or more frequent dialysis, which comes closer to replacing the work healthy kidneys do. A home hemodialysis will require you to have a flexible schedule, where you will see your doctor once per month

Home hemodialysis allows you to have:

Better quality of life

More dialysis filters your blood more thoroughly

Better quality of life

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Peritoneal dialysis is a treatment for kidney failure that uses the lining of your abdomen, or belly, to filter your blood inside your body. Health care providers call this lining the peritoneum.

A few weeks before peritoneal dialysis procedures, a surgeon places a soft tube, called a catheter, inside your body

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Before the first treatment, you will need surgery to have a catheter placed inside of your body. Although the catheter can be used for dialysis as soon as it is in place. the catheter tends to work better when you have 10-20 days to heal before starting a full schedule of exchanges

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The process of filling and then draining the abdomen is called an exchange. Different methods of peritoneal dialysis have different schedules of changes, including:

Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD)

Continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis (CCPD)

CAPD
You fill your abdomen with a dialysate, let it stay there for a prescribed time, then drain the fluid. Gravity moves the fluid through the catheter and into and out of the abdomen. With CAPD:

You may need three to five exchanges during the day and one with a longer time during sleep

You can do the exchanges at home or at work

You're free to continue on normal daily activities while the dialysate is in your abdomen

CCPD
This method uses a machine (automated cycler) that performs multiple exchanges at night while you sleep. The cycler automatically fills your abdomen with dialysate, allows it to sit there and then drains    it to a sterile bag that you empty in the morning. With CCPD:

You must remain attached to the machine for 10 to 12 hours at night

You aren't connected to the machine during the day, but one exchange beginning in the morning with a dwell time that lasts the entire day

You might have a lower risk of developing peritonitis because you connect and disconnect to the dialysis equipment less frequently than you do with CAPD

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The benefits of peritoneal dialysis compared with hemodialysis include:

Greater lifestyle and flexibility

More flexible dietary guidelines

More stable blood chemistry and body hydration

Longer lasting residual kidney function

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Hemodialysis uses a man-made membrane (dialyzer) to filter wastes and remove extra fluid from the blood.
Peritoneal dialysis uses the lining of the abdominal cavity (peritoneal membrane) and a solution (dialysate) to remove wastes and extra fluid from the body

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It is most often done by trained health professionals who can watch for any problems.

It allows you to be in contact with other people having dialysis, which may give you emotional support.

You don't have to do it yourself, as you do with peritoneal dialysis.

You do it for a shorter amount of time and on fewer days each week than peritoneal dialysis.

Home hemodialysis can give you more flexibility in when, where, and how long you have dialysis.

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It gives you more freedom than hemodialysis. It can be done at home or in any clean place. You can do it when you travel. You may be able to do it while you sleep. You can do it by yourself.

It doesn't require as many food and fluid restrictions as hemodialysis.

It doesn't use needles.

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It causes you to feel tired on the day of the treatments.

It can cause problems such as low blood pressure and blood clots in the dialysis access.

It increases your risk of bloodstream infections.

Home hemodialysis may require changes to your home. You and a friend will need to complete training

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The procedure may be hard for some people to do.

It increases your risk for an infection of the lining of the belly, called peritonitis